That Almost Happened!

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

I'm a modest fan of Terminator and Superman but had those been the movies delivered, I would have become a fanboy troll and would never have admitted the movies existed. Wow. Maybe it is a good thing some scripts get leaked occasionally.

Spoiler

You missed Twilight:

"Even if you haven't seen the Twilight flicks or read the series, you probably still know that the plot revolves around the love story between Edward Cullen and Bella Swan. But before Summit bought the rights to the books, the original script swapped the brooding romance for non-stop action. At the time, studios didn't think Bella's endless lovesickness would interest anyone. Instead, the studio wanted to turn Bella into a vampire in the first movie and kill off her father.

"We went shopping to every studio around, but everyone passed. Finally Summit said 'let's do it.' It was a total blessing.

"Before long, Twilight became an international bestseller and Summit realized they had a blockbuster on their hands. A new script was written to appeal to the rabid fan base.

"I mean, one of their drafts literally had a Korean FBI agent who was hunting and tracking vampires across the coast. There was SWAT in the trees and literally it was like, 'Red leader, read leader one,' and the vampires were picking them out of the woods.

"Just imagine if the original script had gone into production! The world might never have seen Taylor Lautner's abs, and Robert Pattinson would just be that guy who played Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter."

I mean, SERIOUSLY.
KOREAN FBI AGENTS TRACKING VAMPIRES?
WTF.

See, I would've probably gone to see that movie.

That would be incredible. Sure the complaining about the sparkly vampire thing would still be around but at least their bonding could happen in the best circumstance (IE: We can't take too long to love each other because the FBI are right behind us). By having the constant action, the movie wouldn't just be about the romance. They could have even had them team up to destroy a helicopter or something.

See that would have saved Twilight from being one of the most hated series on the internet. Action minimizing romance with Vampires against the world. It could almost be turned into a superpowered version of the Borne trilogy...

Heck, if they did it right, I would see those movies.

 

[Luke Cartner]

To be honest the twist for the latest terminator seems more interesting that what the ended up making, which frankly felt unsatisfying and overall unimpressive compared to the first 2

 

[ANImaniac89]

I think I would have loved the Terminator one, it unexpected and might have helped a series that hasn't been great since number 2.

Also that Superman one isn't half bad in my opinion but why have it be a Superman movie it seems like it would be easier to just start a new franchise up with that concept, All they would have to do is rework the Superman elements which by the summary seem very limited to begin with.

thats also what they should have done with the upcoming "adaptation" of the manga Priest, which I'm told has nothing to do with the source manga.

 

[Jfswift]

I'll probably take some flak for this but that revised Terminator script you mentioned didn't sound too bad actually. I think also, that the Marcus character in the last movie was really the only likeable character too. The movie itself in it's current format was horrible, several times I found myself questioning what was going on (like when the terminators located the survivors living close to the city.. I mean come on.. don't these guys post scouts?).

 

[GodKlown]

I smelled touches of the Matrix influence in both the Terminator and Superman alternative directions. The whole 4400 thing for Terminator wouldn't have made much sense to me... why would they need to keep people around for? A sequel? Any robot will tell you that a planet run entirely by robots with no people would be a better place. I could understand if they were using the people for the purpose of creating more believable terminators. However, at some point, innovation would take a back seat to efficiency and it would make more sense to overrun the enemy with sheer numbers than by implanting spies.
As for Superman... holy fucking asscrackers did that sound terribly confusing. An emo kid afraid of his powers, being chased by an interplanetary group of killers, and also being pursued by an alien FBI agent? Were they going to make him green too? How about we throw some ninjas into that shitstorm to help clear up some confusion? I am not against the idea of a reboot of something that is in dire need of it. Superman didn't really fall into that category. The old movies were fine, and we didn't really need them brought up to date, especially with the turd they delivered in the final cut. Maybe we'll luck out with the new reboot of Spiderman and it'll have some crazy unbelievable twist in it that will have Peter Parker die from the spider bite before the end of the movie.

 

[theamazingbean]

That Superman plot sounded fucking awesome, As long as it had a director who realized exactly how ridiculous the entire the entire setup is. But of course, I actually like All-Stars Batman and Robin. Desecrating a long, storied character beloved by millions for the sake of a cheap laugh doesn't bother me at all.

 

[MovieBob]

The whole 4400 thing for Terminator wouldn't have made much sense to me... why would they need to keep people around for? A sequel? Any robot will tell you that a planet run entirely by robots with no people would be a better place. I could understand if they were using the people for the purpose of creating more believable terminators. However, at some point, innovation would take a back seat to efficiency and it would make more sense to overrun the enemy with sheer numbers than by implanting spies.

In fairness to the screenwriters, I somewhat "simplified" the rationale in the article.

The broader "hook" was that Skynet (which, you'll recall from Terminator 1 & 2, was originally an artificially-intelligent computer designed to kick-in and automate military installations in the event of catastrophic war) had "ensure survival of the human race" as it's prime directive.

"Salvation's" ultimately-aborted twist was that, because Skynet "knew" it had a bunch of technically-still-human cyborgs (i.e. other "body donors like Marcus) "on ice" thanks to Cyberdyne aquiring the research firm Marcus donated his body to, it reasoned that the most logical and efficient means of carrying out said directive was to preserve and nurture THOSE healthy, extra-durable specimens while simultaneously wiping out the inferior, war-decimated resistance population and letting the world ecosystem "reboot" itself to be repopulated by Skynet's "pet" humans later.

Granted, this STILL would've resulted in the movie climaxing with a battle between humans and Terminators in a Potemkin Village version of an upscale Southern California gated suburb, but at least it would've made some kind of "ironic" logical sense

 

[theultimateend]

Oh my God, that Superman idea sounds like every worst idea in the history of cinema being blended together and then injected right into my spine. I'm not a Superman fan, but dear God that sounded fucking awful

I was shocked at just how bad it was.

I'm usually open minded about convoluted stories, but that was almost painful.

 

[WaderiAAA]

Considering how the other Super-man movies has turned out, I'm not sure how that idea would have turned out that much worse.

 

[duchaked]

my head is spinning...
but eh not all are THAT horrible...not necessarily great but then again neither are many final film scripts lol

 

[SideburnsPuppy]

I like the Spider-Man one. They could have had him in the Scarlet Spidey suit for a bit, and the Bombtastic Bag-Man suit for a bit...Would have been really cool, if you ask me.

 

[qbanknight]

Oh my God, that Superman idea sounds like every worst idea in the history of cinema being blended together and then injected right into my spine. I'm not a Superman fan, but dear God that sounded fucking awful

I was shocked at just how bad it was.

I'm usually open minded about convoluted stories, but that was almost painful.

I actually found the script online. It's even worse to read it, but I couldn't stop. It was like watching a car crash happen in slow motion

 

[angel85]

On the Superman movie. Don't get me wrong, that sounds like a great story and it would be an awesome movie...if it wasn't about Superman. There is one thing you can't really do to a cherished icon, change the mythology. You can flip around some minor details, alter a few powers, change the timing of certain events, but the basic mythology, the origin story, the character's personality, those things have to shine through. They could have crafted a WHOLE new super hero with that story and I bet it would have been GREAT, but the moment they try to put Superman's name on it it becomes crap. I'm not saying the movie would be technically bad just because you decide to call it Superman, but EVERYONE who likes Superman (there are a lot of us) will hate it, which isn't a good thing since we'd be the ones most likely to go see it.

 

[fanklok]

What? You guys didn't know jesus was an alien with super strength and a living costume that let him fly?

 

[triggrhappy94]

You forgot to mention that Fransic Ford Copola was almost not the dirrector of The Godfather part 1, after the studio saw how dark they were making the scenes

 

[Echo136]

That version of Terminator would have been completely stupid.

 

[TheTejs]

you totally forgot the part where Will Smith turned down the role as Neo in the Matrix for Wild Wild West...

 

[i7omahawki]

Am I the only one who thinks that every one of these except the last one would have made these movies better?

Haha, definately not.

These are classy ideas. The Spider-man one in particular interested me, I guess that got watered down into the 'Nice Spidey suit,' throwaway comment.

The Terminator one, sounds half good half bad. The whole John Connor legend being nothing but that is a great idea. The whole robots protecting us from ourselves, is wayyyyyyy overdone though, and done better. I like SkyNet being the incarnation of man's destructive tendancies, for them to have some Asimov-esque morality behind them would be lame IMHO.

The Superman one went from bad, to worse, to terrible. They basically just said, 'Hey, lets copy the bible but replace the word 'Jesus' with 'Superman'!'

Who is that story-telling tactic targetting? I assume many Christians would consider it blasphemus to compare their All Mighty God, to an alien in a blue and red costume. Atheists don't want a morality tale in the style of a religion they don't believe in. Basically, its just lazy story telling.

What I would like, and possibly the only chance of making a good Superman movie, is returning to the origin of his name, and making him a Nietzschean superman. Enjoying his power and not sticking to a morality that is obviously below him. That'd be a fun Superman.

 

[baiaishan]

I also think the terminator one would have made a better movie. I actually might have wanted to see it. I can see why it would have made a lot of hardcore terminator fans upset, but I for one would have appreciated the end to the story. I don't think it detracts from the plot of the original movies- the terminators still want Connor dead in the past, etc etc. I think it would have made for a more compelling plot that would have brought up interesting philosophical questions that one could discuss with friends after the film. Oh well, it was not to be.

 

[hawk533]

The Terminator idea is one I actually like. Seems like a fun way of really twisting around the typical morality tropes and maybe leave people wondering "who's right?" And would probably have been an excellent idea to sort of in-universe reboot the mess they'd been making of the overall story arc. (Though ending it all after T2 would still have been the best plan.)

I agree with this. Maybe it would have been a really good movie if it was written outside of the Terminator universe. I like the idea that the hero of humanity is actually half it's enemy and that the enemy is really it's best protector. It would totally flip the post-apocalyptic movie tropes on their heads.